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mage Arts Press
Ryerson Univers ty
Schoo of mage Arts
122 Bond Street
Toronto ON M582K3
416 979 5000
www.ryerson.ca
Director of Des gn
Robert App eton
D rector of Research
and Publications
Blake Fitzpatr ck
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I
V BRUOEELDER
1
R. Bruce Elder studied philosophy at McMaster University and the University of
Toronto, mathematics at York University, computer science at Ryerson
University, dance, music composition, semiotics, and West African and Egyptian
percussion at various schools in Toronto and New England. His films have
been screened at New York's Museum of Modern Art and The Millennium Film
Workshop, Berlin's Kino Arsenal, Paris' Centre Pompidou, the San Francisco
Cinematheque, Los Angeles Film Forum, Cinematheque Ontario, Stadtfilmmuseum
Munchen, and Hamburg's Kino Metropolis. Retrospectives of his work have
been presented by Anthology Film Archives (NY) , the Art Gallery of Ontario, La
Cin6matheque qu6becoise, ll Festival Senzatitolo (Trento), lmages '97(Toronto), the Antechamber (Regina) and the University of Western Ontario.
For the past decade his films have made extensive use of computer image gener-
ation and image processing. Elder holds a voting membership in the lnstitute
of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the Association for Computing Machin-
ery and has received grants for research in digital image processing.
He has published numerous articles and three books, lmage and ldentity: Reflections
on Canadian Film Culture (1989), which includes extensive treatments of
the films of Michael Snow and Jack Chambers;A Body of Vision: Representations ofthe Body in Recent Film and Poetry (1997); and fhe Films of Stan Brakhage
in the American Tradition of Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein and Charles O/son (1998).
A new book, Harmony and Dissent; Film and Avant-garde Art Movements in
the Early Twentieth Century will appear in 2008.
ln 2007, Bruce Elder was awarded the Governor General's Award in Media Arts,
Canada's most prestigious award in the discipline and was elected a Fellow
of the Royal Society of Canada, the highest honour that can be awarded to
scholars in Canada.
Lamentatians: A Monument to the Dead World - 1985
li,!
R. Bruce Elder's The Book of All the Dead
The Book of All the Dead, R- Bruce Elder's 42-hour-long first cycle, gathers
films he made between 1975 and 1994. (He started working on a new cycleof more modest proportions, The Book of Praise, soon thereafter.) ln both itsquantitative and qualitative scope, it is likely the most ambitious artworkin its medium, in the same league as the towering achievements in other media
on which it is modeled - Dante's Divine Comedy, Pound's Canfos, Wagner's
Ring - as an epic of Biblical proportions, structure, and inspiration, For "IfieBook of All the Dead is an effort (bound not to succeed) to create a com-pendium of the most valuable thoughts produced by the greatest minds of our
civilization - by the greatest minds of the culture that is about to disappear;"i
namely the West, whose objectifying "conquest of the world as image" (Heidegger)
has proceeded abreast of its own inner collapse. Gan some kind of spiritualraft still be pieced together from the flotsam of this shipwreck, by using art towrest some meaningful patterns from the undertow as they emerge? This
was Elder's wager in resorting to experimenta! film, to not only trace the modern
world's descent into the hell of technological nihilism, but point the way toa paradise regained by reuniting mind and body, coaxing the viewer to surrenderto p'oetac rhythms arising out of the counterpoint of the disparate stimuli ofa non-narrative multimedia collage that thwarts the rationa! subject's phantasies
of control and continuity, To enact the interpenetration of self and world,he ventured to rely on the ontological features of the photographic image, since
it is not made by human hands so much as by the unconcealment of light,hoping to fashion through film "a new model of reality - a post-modern paradigm"
"that most closely resembles the pre-modern beliefs of Western Christianity,"ii
where material signs reveal the elusive creative wellspring of all appearance,
while the past remains alive in the present as the future comes forth.
The Book of All the Dead, accordingly, is not a version of Dante (or of Pound) but
a demonstration of the endurance of a particular pattern of intelligence...concerning a journey to the place of the dead and a visit with ancient bards...
It] manifests the co-existence of works in this higher Order of Things and
the co-presence of all such works even in the intelligence of our miserably
destitute times.iiiAbove, Conso/ations (Love ls an Art of Time) - 1988
lefl, Lamentations: A Monument to the Dead World - 1985
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Etd6r'. oyct. i. d..pty indebt.d in tht. to Northrop Frye's llterary criticlsm: theme i3love tnd the irr€concilability ol lov. wlth domin.tlon."vrlt th.r.lor.r.sists imposing a ne.t coh€rence on the viewer'r experienc€, insread
At the bas€ of Fry6,s writing ls a conc€p$on of bio-powsr which €xtsnds in a vast allowlng ord.r to lleetingly emerge out of the flow ol things .s the gift of
fistd throughout htstory. Power ts dopicted as €nergy which creates the forms I a Provldonce that has nolhing to do with the triumphant march ol lin.ar
of titsrary work thai sppsar through the pens of artisrs and poets. This represents Progr€s. lhai !h. mod.rn wost has turnod lt lnlo. slnco "lh. New advent doos
Fry6,s artempt to gei bsyond the car€gories of tim€ and space, good and svil, not stand before us, but 6boYe u.."vr Thi. must b€ kopt in mlnd as 'the cycl€
or any of the catsgorios of taw that constiluts th6 power structure of tho west6rn r beoins with the emerqenco ol Natur€ out of nothlnqnoas and 6nd3 with iho N€w
mind. li is a p.otoundty ideatistic conc€ption and undoubtedly B.ginnins,'lx again like the Birs, while, .s in Pouhd's Carfos, r'the interweaYins
reftects Fryo,s retigtous betiet.rv ol them.sln ft. Book ol A th. D.a., constitute3 a gigantic m.tapfior lor th.d.yelopment and confllcls wlthln an lndlylduslwho.o d€velopm.nt ln turn
a! it do.s Etder'!, sinc€ he undorsronds hi.lllms a3 .th€ work ol a 6lmPl. piou! slrnds lor tho hlttorlcal proc€st lt3elf.'"
mah.'v For rrto Aoor ofArr lr. O.rd .3.umes ihe lncarnatlon ol tho Llghi
ot rh. world, rhe dtyln. word tn which €[ ihins. hrv. th.i] b6lnE ln timo, y.t But this development is not cognitive; It's nol thal the discovery of an aporia in
.r. bound uD ,, Lirr,t oa th. Or.aa ciyirg .. th. singl. rim.l.5! toxt ol one system of understanding propels one to a new l6vel of understanding
Truth th.t mantt.sts Bo-lng ir.e[, Ik. rho Btbr.. Thir !nalosy com.. out incl- lt's more a historical/th€ological progression than a concePtual Progression.xi
dentally in th6 tollowing glo35:Elder'. hints to thi! effect have la.g6ly gone unho6dod, ao thal in approachlng
I hav€ wanted io work wtth many ryp€s of construction, io ompnaslzo th6 films' fho Book ot All the Dead alreah, one might do wor.o than tako aa a guidlng
colags character... [as] an occasion for the happ€ning of truth, for truth to thr.ad on this protract.d iournev th. theolosv of histotv drawn lrom rhe Bible
6m€rge tnto th€ op6ning in routine that ih6 strangsnoss of a work of art cr€atss. and Chrlstian llturgy thal structuros th. scqu€nco ol th.lilms and proYid.s a
Onty such a bricotago construcflon that disrurbs the llow of time can suggest k.y to lhon m.anlng wllhln tn€ lormal wholo ol lh. comPleted cyclo, rogardl.ss or
th€ continlat ronswat of Bo-ing tn rh€ incessani comi.g fodh of beings. (of co'rrc6, how End when they aroso wlthln th€ llts and stsrE of tho Prol.ct as lt evolv.d.
a book, in the Blblical s€ns€, is simllal: a motlsv coll€ctlon of r€cords of
diverse sorts: po€ms, prayers, history, t6gat €dicts, theologlcal sp€culatlons, Th. erperi.nc€ ot th€ Wholly Other th.t Eld.r sceks to foster in every moment
visionary rocords, anocdotes, a ogories, parabtes, talss, etc.)vl l. lhat ol th. wonder ol Cr..lion out ol no thing. H. lik.s io locatc it in th€l.malo body.nd modo of b.ing as th. obj.ct ot lh. longing that propals his cycl.
Mort ot the otom.nts Etder [3t3 aboye ar! .lso ro b.lound, amonq oih.rs, in lrom boginning to 6nd, corresPondlng to Be€trlco ln Danto'8 pootlc work a.
hts own aoof, ofI ,n. Derd, Thi. cofloc o. ot fflmtc.books't3 tikewlso . whole,.s well as to the shulamite oI the Bible'r song of songr, aboui loy€
.rr.ngod In a. oyorsrching ord.n tte !rm. one th.t FryG idontlfl.d as th. Grott .3 lh. experience of Paridise aYailable even wiihln e f.llen uorld. the
Cod. ot We3t.rn tii€r.tur., d€t€ctabt. in mo.t ol its workr, i.e. th. r.quenco f.minine h.r. is not jusl a guide to th€ divine but t clu€ to its very natu.e. At the
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women who gradually become aware of each other as distinct beings, with a
bittersweet taste of self-knowledge at the mirror-stage. This fall from grace
is only aggravated with Tie Art of Worldly Wisdom,leading from ancient Christiangraves to Elder's mirror image as a body emaciated by disease and a selfhaunted by death, which drives the narrative construction of identity through(largely false) memories- Yet the "little death" of pleasure can still affordunity with Nature, while film footage takes over from medieval stained-glasswindows as a "text of light" (Brakhage) about its invisible Source, exempli-f ied in the transparent Trace of a painterly nude that follows. This is a glimpseof the redeeming female figure that will recur throughout the cycle, like theprinciple of Permutations and Combinations, where rapid-fire audio-visual non-sequiturs show a way beyond self-will. lt leads to the increasingly randomchronometry that becomes part of the collage of poetic and mathematical citationsol 1857 (Fool's Gold), where Pound admits he has "tried to write Paradise,"even though "Le Paradis n'est pas artificieli" for.natural lorces prove uncontrol-lable in the Flood, recalling the irresistible storm of Progress blowing from
LeJt, fhe Art of Warldly Wisdom 1979
Above, Barbara ls a Vision of Laveliness - 1976
Paradise, thwarting the Angel of History's constant attempts to go back, "awakenthe dead, and make whole what has been smashed," in Walter Benjamin'sllluminations.'lii Nostalgia's "wounds of returning" heal awhile in f ragile peace
with the Creator after the ordeal related in the words of Defoe's Journal ofthe Plague Year, as though Noah could now say: Look! We Have Come
Thrbugh!, since here for Elder "the cinematic transformations which the danceunder-goes parallel my struggles to regain my health after a lengthy illness,"
He performs fhe l-esson by !onesco in llluminated Texts, demonstrating how
"arithmetic leads to philology, and philology leads to crime,"xi, as the total-izing rationality of Babel degenerates into the confusion of languages, so thatmeaning gets lost along with the sense of good and evil, leaving only theclosing image of himself filming at Auschwitz as devastating proof that "hellis to be one's own" (as Elder insists with his philosophical master George
Grant). Elder's Lamentations, like Jeremiah's, can then stand as a Monumentto the Dead World left in the wake of this profanation, since language as
the "house of Being" has been laid waste like the Temple as the "house of theHoly" (Heidegger). This feminine presence of God - the Kabbalah's Shekinah,
now exiled from the Temple - is thus mostly felt in the mode of absence in lheDream of the Last Historian,lor She ls Away, and fhe Sublime Calculation
that would bring us back dancing to a restored Jerusalem turns out to be an
illusion, but for the female figure glimpsed among the abstract patterns of
"a purely cinematic choreography" (Elder) in Barbara ls a Vision of Loveliness.
She may be that same Shekinah as Wisdom (Sophia), courted in the Wisdom
Books of the Bible (Ecclesiastes, Psalms, the Song of Songs), which The Book
of All the Dead abundantly quotes in the three "books" of Consolations,where wisdom is identified with the order of the universe to which humankind
must learn to submit in order to find solace, and more specifically with the
laws of Nature disclosed by empirical knowledge. The observance of Law now
takes over from Temple worship, and such humble attentaon in obedienceSweet Love Remembered
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prepares virgin ground for a new covenant, allied to a faithful reading of human
wisdom. Boethius's The Consolations of Philosophy stands at the beginningof its Christian tradition, and its Greek name can mean both the "love of wisdom"
and the "wisdom of love." This new alliance of Athens and Jerusalem wassealed in our time by Simone Weil's understanding of faith as "the experiencethat intelligence is enlightened by love," which Elder tries to convey at thecrux of his cycle, as philosophical prose runs its course to the point of callingon poetry to fulfill the tasks of thought. For Love ls an Art of Time in itsmost expansive region, allowing The Fugitive Gods to leave in their wake 7De
Lighted Clearing where The Body and the World can come together in plea-sure as a vacant mind communes with the Wholly Other and a saving masculineWord is uttered in a maiden's shape (as in Syberberg's film of Wagner's Parsifall,
This "Magnificat" gives way to Exultations at the Word's lncarnation in Flesh Angels,
since human bodies become the sacrificial locus of the divine, still wander-
ing between old and new dispensations in Newton And Me, before we reach theend of Purgatory atop the earthly Paradise ol Azure Serene (Mountains,Rivers, Sea, and Sky). As Dante there takes leave of Virgil as guide, to be ledby Beatrice up to the Heavenly Rose, so does Elder now part ways with hisown mentor Stan Brakhage at the latter's bridal banquet, evoking both the Wedding
at Cana and the Last Supper where the Bridegroom (Christ) was joined withhis Bride (the Church) as One Body beyond time as history. This calls lor Exult-ations: ln Light of the Great Giving of a "time when Heaven descends toearth and makes all earth one with Heaven" (Elder), resolving all dualities into acoincidentia oppositorum,' above and below, outside and inside, male and
female, the beginning and the end, even life and death at this climax of HolyWeek. For if the institution of the Eucharist on Maundy Thursday ushersin a cosmic missa jubilaea, it also hinges on the Passion of Good Friday and
the Harrowing of Hell on the sabbath, or Burying the Dead: lnto the Light
that will fill all with the Paschal proclamation of Et Resurrectus Est in a garden'
outside the Gity of Lights as Heavenly Jerusalem? For it was at Giverny
that Monet captured the Edenic vision of a florat epiphany of Light' which pro-
pelled Elder on his own quest to film Paradise as the redemption of history
within Nature, paradoxically achieved when all things are made new and strangely
iconic in the digital imagery of the Risen Body, whose embrace heals the
soul it merges with as a feminine erotic Presence' encompassing all the dead -past and future - in eternal Life-
Christian Roy
i Bruce Elder to Antonio Bisaccia, October 1994.
ii F. Bruce Elder, lmage and ldentity. Reflections on Canadian Fitm and Culture. Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier
University Press, 1989, PP. 30-31.
iii Bruce Elder, "Ash Wednesday Letter" to Archie Henderson, April '1, 1991, publlshed as "Driftworks, Pulseworks,
Lightworks" in James I\.4iller, ed., Dante and the LJnorthodox: The Aesthetics of Trangression Water oo, Ont.:
Wilfrid Laurler Universiiy Press,2005, p 468.
iv David Cook, Northrop Frye. A Vision of the New World . Monlr'eal: New World Perspectives, 1 985, p. 1 4.
v ,,lnterview with Bruce Elder'by Jim Shedden, Mitlennium Film Journal, No. 22, Winter-Spring 1989-1990, p. 114.
vi Bruce Elder to Antonio Bisaccia, October 1994.
vii "lnterview with Bruce Elder" by Jim Shedden, p. 101.
viil Bruce Elder to Antonlo Bisaccia, October 1994.
ix "lnterview with Bruce Elder" by Jim Shedden, p 1 01.
x Loc. cit., P, 101.
xi Loc. cit., p. 104.
xii See a germane Heideggerian reading ol thal tradition by the University o{ Saskatchewan's Herbert V. Guenther.
Matrix of Mystery: Scientific and Humanistic Aspects of rDzogs-chen Thought. Boston: Shambhala Publications' 2001
xiii Walter Benjamin, "Theses on the Philosophy of History" lX, in llluminations. Ed. Hannah Arendt. Tr. Harry Zohn.
New York: Schocken Books, 1970, p. 249.
xiv Eugene lonesco, Four Plays T Donad lvl Allen New York: Grove Press, 1958, p 76'
Bruce Elder F mography
The Book of Praise (cycle ol films)
The Yaung Prince 2AO7
lnfunde Lumen Cordibus - 2AA3
Eros and Wonder - 2AO3
Crack, Brutal, Grief - 2OO1
A Man Whose Life Was Full of Woe Has Been Surprised by Jay - 1997
The Boak af All The Dead (cycle of fi ms)
Exultatians: ln Light of the Great Giving
Part 6: Et Fesurrectus Est 1994
Pa:t 5: Burying the Dead: lnta the Light - 1993
Pafi 4t Exultations: ln Light af the Great Glvlng - 1993
Parl 3t Azure Serene: Mauntairs, B/yers, Sea ard Sky - 1992
Parl 2t Newtan and Me 1 990 (co-c nematographer Alexa Frances Shaw)
Part 1: Fiesh Argels - 1990
Cansolations (Love ls an Art of Time)
Part 3: Ihe Body and the World - 1988
Pafi 2t The Lighted Clearing - 19BB
Part 1 | The Fugi ti ye Gods - 1 9BB
Lamentatians: A Manument to the Dead Warld
Pai 2t The Sublitne Calculatlo, -1985 (co c nematographer Stephen Smith)
?ai 1t The Dream af the Last Historian I 985 (co-cinematographer Stephen Smith)
llluminated lexts - 'l 982 (ed tor Anna Patamow)
1857 (Faol's Gold) - 1981
Irace - I980
Sweet Love Remembered - 19BO
The Art of Worldly Wisdom - 1979
Laok! We Have Come Through! 1 978
Unremitting Tenderness - 1977
She ls Away 1976
Permutations and Combinations 1976
Barbara ls a Vision of Loyellness - 1 976
Breath/ Lig ht/ Bi rth - 1 975
Bight, F/esh Angels 1 990
Ryerson Un vers ty is Canada's leader in career focused education. As part of the Faculty of Communication & Des gn,
the Schoo of lmage Arts is internationaly recognized for its graduate and undergraduate programs wth specal-
zations in Film, New lVed a and Photography. Thls pub cat of appears in conjunct on w th C nematheque Ontar o's
!creen ng af The Boak of All the Dead n its Winter 2008 Season.
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